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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Tuesday, 1 July 2014

People
want to know why- despite the UMNO led government committing a lot of
transgressions- corruption, abuse of power, land grabs, economic mismanagement,
intimidation; it continues to rule the minds of Malays. They continue to
support UMNO despite their loathing of the abusive and highhandedness and even
bestiality of UMNO leaders.

How
can we explain this?

In
the past, we explained this fixated allegiance to UMNO because Malays as a
whole believe that UMNO can save the Malays, their religion, their culture and
the Malay rulers. UMNO has succeeded in etching into the minds of Malays
especially, that UMNO is indispensable. Continuity is better than unknowable
change. The known better than the unknown.

Even
hard headed Singapore thinks, it’s better to have UMNO in Malaysia as the
government. That is because Singapore places its interests above everything
else and this overriding interest is unavoidably linked to the continuance of
UMNO.

To
me this is surprising because the interest of Singapore ought to be attached to
a government (any government) in Malaysia that upholds the rule of law,
advocates pragmatic realism, honour its obligations toward neighbours and
parties to contracts. These qualities are diminishing under UMNO.

I
have also used that rationale. But how do we explain that there were many
Malays who voted for Pakatan Rakyat in 2013 General elections.?

I
have to seek the answer/s elsewhere.

On
the first day of Ramadhan, I walked around Raub’s Pasar Ramadhan. Since it was
the first day of Ramadhan, the tempo has yet to pick up.All the same, it was a merry affair but made
a little sombre by rising costs of inputs.

A
medium sized ikan bakar of a variety that is commonly found is Raub, sells for
RM12 a piece. The standard price of whatever kueh is 5 pieces for RM2.

Come
to Raub if you want to sample some traditional Malay dishes- sambal hitam,
jeruk maman, some veges that I have only recently come to know the names of.
Simple, ordinary and kampung type of dishes.Tasty nonetheless. And of course Raub is quietly famous for its ikan
gulai tempoyak- Patin of course.

The
price of inputs such as sugar, cooking gas, cooking oil has all gone up. Chillies,
spices have increased in price. The basic ingredients- fish, meats, and
vegetables have also risen in price. One Kilo of rubber cannot buy you one kilo
of Kangkung despite being hailed as cheap by the PM.

But
as I have observed, the Malays who are Muslims have a very high tolerance level
of life’s misfortunes. In many instances, this has been their undoing. They
will suffer and endure in silence. Probably this has something to do with their
fatalism. Whatever is willed, so be it.

While
the Malays complain about rising cost of living reflected in the price increase
in almost everything they use and consume, they view these things as a natural development. Perhaps this is the
answer- resign and accepts as natural
development whatever comes. Malays do not respond to the challenge by
overcoming the challenge but submitting and accepting. They fail to mount a
robust challenge.

Those
Malays who have mounted a robust challenge have advanced better. They become
diplomats, doctors, engineers, get themselves better educated got themselves
into higher paying jobs. At one point in their lives, these Malays have
responded robustly to life’s challenges by exercising control over their own
fate. Those who do not, have regrettably slid behind.

We
now know the basic nature of the problem. We must teach Malays to overcome the
fear of changing and mounting a robust challenge. Our inability to break-this
is a natural development syndrome-
has hampered the emergence of the required awareness to enable change to take
place. Malays either cannot or will not comprehend that there is nothing
natural in these man-made social and economic disasters.

The
dysfunctional state of affairs is caused by dysfunctional leadership, bad
management of the economy, failure in the branches of government. If we desire
change, then we must work towards the political education of the Malays.

Let
me give you an example. Raub has endured interruptions in water supplies ever since
I came to Raub one year ago. Each week, there will be dry-outs. A Malay village
may suffer water outage for 4 days- yet Malays make no issue out of that. They
will reconcile the water outage by assuring themselves that this thing will
soon come to pass. In any case, we can always go to the nearest river or
something. Malays thus respond by submitting tamely.

Not
so the Chinese. They will call you immediately and demand supply of water and
we will accordingly be calling the Perbadanan Air Pahang( Raub chapter) to do
the needful. The poor manager has been receiving incessant calls from us. A very
decent and helpful person, this Encik Azri.

What
is my point here? Malays and Chinese have different ways of looking at how we
manage affairs. In the water outage case, the Malays ignore the possibility
that the water outage may be the result of previous poor investment in
infrastructure, that the problem may be caused by inefficient water asset
management- use of inferior pipes, inferior water pumps, failing logistics and
plain mediocre infrastructure. It cannot be attributed to low water levels- we
have plenty of rain and catchment areas. Refusing to see the problem from this
aspect has resulted in Malays being seen as pliable, compliant and submissive.

In
a sense that attitude as been the Malay undoing. Water problem? - No problem
just be patient. Rising cost of living? - This will soon come to pass. The
government is doing everything possible. BR1M is here. RM1.70 a day- that is
all right. At least we are getting something.

Pay
for education fees. That’s ok. We can always beg around. Pay for the AES summons-
RM 300. That is also ok. We will crush all those who sabotage the government’s
efforts to get more money. GST- why are you people preventing the government
from getting more money. More money means better spending on the public. More
money means more frequent BR1Ms.

This
is an important lesson to all political parties. To the DAP, it will not be
sufficient only to cultivate Malay support. It must be accompanied by raising
the awareness and the reality that responding to any challenge robustly can only
bring betterment.

12
comments:

What a provoking piece for the opening month of Ramadhan & justly so – as the holy month is for the contemplating of mind & soul.

Without any thought provoking inputs, how does one refresh & reexamine one’s past deeds?

The Malays r timid & feudalistic – perhaps that has a lot to do with their culture, especially Islam’s role in molding this nature. This natural development syndrome would need ground-shaking paradigm mind-changing ‘upheavals’ to reshape this mindset.

Someone has to take the lead & yet for the foreseeable future, the fabled ‘iman Mahidi’ is still out there, to be found & awaken.

Maybe he could be found in M’sia. More likely he would be found in a more enlightened open culture where free thoughts roam freely & supreme. In so doing re-interpret the WORDS of the holy Quran to suit the modern settings of the time.

Right now, majority of the Muslims r adhering to the old rigid dogmas, as interpreted by the ’learned’ ulamas, mostly from the Hadith rather than strictly from the Quran. Many equal Hadiths to Quran – which is wrong, as NO ONE is more omnipresence than the Allah. Not any of the prophets that He has ordained to right the wrongs of His creation!

Religion aside, the indoctrination of the Malay mindset with indispensable umno inputs has started to be re-examinated.

The 40% lowest household, majority of them, Malay, know now that within the Malay race, there r cartels - the royals, the umno elites, the well-connecteds, the sycophants & the pyramid base.

& this 40% r the base that supported the mighty MLM pyramid of the fews, with only sacrificial crumbs in the name of 3Rs.

Yes, u r Melayu, but if u r not from the right groupings within that MLM pyramid, u r ONLY one level better off than the Nons. So the saying goes.

But is it? The Nons has been going through fire & sweat to come up with an instinct of fighting for survival & not taking rotten norms as mentioned in the connotation of ‘Insya Allah’. Submission is not voluntarily, especially when it crumbled under the weights of strong evidences of dysfunctional leadership, bad management of the economy, failure in the branches of government. They find ways to bypass & go around these unavoidable man-made obstacles, to reach their goals.

This, in turn is been exploited by the umno elites in fortified their 40% base by blaming the Nons for not helping these Malays. Thus, the continuing saga of a dichotomous development in all fronts in M’sia

Education helps. But the way the M’sian educational system is been tweaked, there would be more blur-sotong followers than enlightened path-finders. & more evidences r leading to this trend such as the ‘well-educated’ group like Isma could exit! Perhaps, they r indeed ‘educated’ BUT not learned!

Come whatever may, the Melayu has to be awakening for the betterment of this nation. For this nation’s future is been played out by them due to their significant quantity.

Where this nation is going – is determined by the quality of the minds within this large number of feudalistic people, who r still trying to find a path forwards, instead letting the ultras heading them back to a medieval caliphate.

So true and incisive analysis and evaluation of Malay and Chinese thinking and response to situation. Dato, is this due to religious belief? Culture? Or the agricultural life-style of the Malays where the harvest of your crops is dependent on the dictates of the weather and that is beyond your control.

I grew up with Malays all my life and I fully agree with what you have said about them. They accept everything as takdir Allah or whatever term. Even failure in an exam is God's Will.They need to be thought that God has also given them a brain, hands and legs. For what???They are unwilling to hold the authorities responsible for anything, be it a blackout or water shortage or pot holes or clogged drains and uncollected garbage.UMNO knows their Archilles Heel and fully exploits it to their benefit. That's why they even accept good-for-nothing UMNO candidates who have impoverished them.Little wonder the Chinese advance so fast. They believe in their own will and efforts. Nothing comes down from heaven for free. You work for it.

Taste of experience by cross culture make harmonised understanding between etnics either by intras or inters action. This failure of dakwa between muslims and non muslims since the first colonisation. The tru dakwa an understanding.

Spot on Dato. If the Malays mindset still don't want to change, their current & future generation are the onea who will suffer. So they can blame nobody but themselves for this predicament. Sadly they still don't know or don't realized that is their own race & people that are screwing them.

Dear Sir,Maybe the reason for the majority of Malays continuing to vote for BN is similar to some Chinese (albeit a smaller group) still continuing to vote for BN and the people of Sarawak and Sabah continuing to vote for BN. Not much access to real "news".Regards

Not only Malays but other race and religions ALSO being ROMANTICS to UMNO-Barang Naik, suffering, terrorism, inept and incompetence handling of the country resources and economy, education and corruption to the hilt....

Dato, I think you miss 1important point. The biggest group that is exempted from paying income tax are Malays. They are not sensitive at all to the money spent by the government as it is not their money. On top of that the govt rewards them with BR1M. Does that answers your question as to why the chinese has different views when comes to govt spending ( or overspending ).